April/May Issue of Echelon Magazine Available

Check out the newest edition of Echelon Magazine, and be sure to read the article I wrote entitled When Traveling, Be Cautious of the Term “Gay-Friendly” on page 34.

GLAAD Media Awards In Advertising Winners Announced

The 2010 GLAAD Media Awards in Advertising winners have been announced:

• Outstanding TV Campaign – LGBT Market: Levi’s Gay History Month/Logo Leaders Campaign (Levi Strauss & Co.)
• Outstanding Print Campaign – Mainstream Market:  America’s Top Couple (K-Y Brand)
• Outstanding Print Campaign – LGBT Market:  Works in Progress (Progressive Insurance)
• Outstanding Interactive Campaign:  The Advocate Money Minute Presented by Wells Fargo (Wells Fargo)
• Outstanding Social Marketing Campaign:  SAGECAP: The Caregiver’s Caregiver (SAGE)

Additionally, American Airlines was awarded the Corporate Responsibility Award for 2010.

All of the winning and nominated creative can be viewed here.  Congratulations to all the winners!

Community Marketing Announces Completion Of Two Gay Business Related Studies

Community Marketing, Inc., a GLBT market research and communications firm based in San Francisco, has announced the completion of two studies, one focusing on GLBT consumers and the other on gay commerce.

The 4th LGBT Community Survey yields historic 40,000 respondents from 100+ countries; provides marketing and communications insights, tracks motivations and trends.  Sample findings include:

• When asked which major purchases they’d put off due to the economy but intend to make in the upcoming year, one-third said they plan to take a major vacation. Furniture and automobiles are next most popular major intended purchases.
• When asked to rank the LGBT-friendliness of their employer on a 10-point scale, only half rated their employer LGBT-friendly. About 14% ranked their employer not at all LGBT-friendly.
• While more than half of respondents check Facebook daily, the difference between young and old was significant. 81% of younger gay men (age 18-29) check Facebook daily, compared with only 37% of older gay men (age 45-59).

The first-ever survey of GLBT-owned companies and gay-friendly corporations yields a trove of findings and a roadmap for increasing GLBT-related business-to-business commerce.  The survey of over 1,400 gay and lesbian business decision-makers was conducted by Community Marketing, in partnership with the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), and supported by Hyatt Hotels, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies and Wells Fargo Bank.  The study helps to quantify and qualify the purchasing habits, motivations, and behaviors of GLBT-owned companies and gay-friendly corporations, and explore opportunities for increasing GLBT-related B2B commerce.

Full survey results will be presented at the NGLCC Conference, November 18-20 in Washington, D.C.

RDCA Karate Denounces Ads, Agency Apologizes

RDCA Karate, the company represented by these blatantly anti-gay ads, has denounced the ads, saying: “We want you to know that we don’t condone this action and we are taking steps to make sure something like this never happens again. I apologize to you and anyone else that may have thought we knowingly allowed these ads to leave the agency. These ads were never produced nor would they have seen the light of day had they come across my desk. The creator of these ads is very apologetic and never intended to offend anyone however, we as the owners, understand that they can be considered offensive and would not under any circumstances have ever let them ever be produced.”

In an interview with Waymon Hudson, Joe Zubizarreta, COO of Zubi – the agency behind the ads – also apologized by saying:  “The ads in question were posted by an individual that works at our agency on a site that creatives use to share ideas and get comments from others in their line of work. The art director who developed them told me that he had posted this campaign as well as three others to get feedback from other creatives as to their opinions of the work. We want you to know that we don’t condone this action and we are taking steps to make sure something like this never happens again. I apologize to you and anyone else that may have thought we knowingly allowed these ads to leave the agency. These ads were never produced nor would they have seen the light of day had they come across my desk.

The creator of these ads is very apologetic and never intended to offend anyone however, we as the owners, understand that they can be considered offensive and would not under any circumstances have ever let them ever be produced. Zubi Advertising embraces and celebrates all religions, lifestyles and ethnicities as part of our “Erase Stereotypes” philosophy.”

Honest mistakes happen, but the ads in question should never have been created in the first place.  At least Zubi has acknowledged its mistake and taken full responsibility for the gaffe.  My apologies to RDCA Karate, who unfortunately will suffer the most by their agency’s extremely poor judgment.

August/September Issue Of Echelon Magazine Released

The August/September issue of Echelon Magazine is out.  Click the link and navigate to page 24 for a story I wrote about the increase in corporate Pride sponsorships across the nation this year despite the languid economy.  Enjoy!

Automotive Website Gaywheels.com Caters To Gay Consumers

A friend of mine recently referred me to Gaywheels.com– the world’s first automotive website designed specifically for GLBT consumers.  The site launched way back in 2005 and “provides a gay-friendly way to research and buy a car or truck and related services.”

In addition to automobile reviews, the website features searches for new and used cars, a dealership locator tool, automotive related articles, price quotes, insurance information, and even a list of gay-friendly auto manufacturers.

Gaywheels.com has an impressive bullpen of contributing writers, but the list of advertisers seems to be fairly small (the three banner ads on the homepage appear to all be the same creative concept for Buick today).  The banner ads are also a little overwhelming for my taste, but I guess they’ve gotta pay the bills somehow.

Vote For Your Favorite Gay Commercial

Pink! AccuraCast, a London-based advertising firm specializing in GLBT marketing, has pulled together a great collection of gay-themed television ads, and they want you to vote for your favorite.  You can see this collection of 22 commercials on the company’s BestGayAds YouTube channel.  Not surprisingly, the vast majority of the ads are European – demonstrating once again that Europe is light years ahead of the U.S. in targeting the GLBT population.

Rentboy.com Execs Speak Out In Wake Of Rekers Scandal

Here’s a link to an exclusive interview with Rentboy.com CEO Jeffrey Davids and site director Sean Van Sant.  As I discussed in a previous post, Rentboy.com was thrust into the national spotlight after anti-gay activist and Baptist preacher George Rekers was exposed as having hired a male escort through the website.

Interestingly, in addition to sky-rocketing traffic totals, Van Sant and Davids report that the number of visitors from rural areas has increased.  “It’s drawn people from small towns. We never really had that before… If you don’t know anything about gay men, who’s going to teach you? And here’s Jay Leno, talking about us. I’m shocked at the ruralization of this service.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if Rekers – whose raison d’être has been to destroy his own secret life and the life of gay men everywhere – would end up making people feel OK about their sexuality? Wouldn’t that be the ultimate irony?”

Texas A&M Markets To Gay Professors

Texas A&M University has found a defiant way to market itself to gay professors.  Despite the state’s ban on gay marriage, the university’s faculty senate passed a resolution to extend health benefits to same sex partners by a vote of 59 to 1.

Under Texas insurance code, only a “spouse and/or child” qualifies as a dependent, but proponents contend the school has the power to interpret the word “dependent” however its insurance needs require.  And because 23 of the nation’s top 25 U.S. universities (as identified by U.S. News & World Report) offer such benefits, the faculty senate contends Texas A&M must follow suit to remain competitive.

Because I’ve earned two degrees and spent 7 years of my life at Texas A&M, this matter is close to my heart.  I vividly remember 10 years ago when the school was named the “Least Gay-Friendly Public University” in the country and how the student body overwhelmingly reacted with a sense of pride to this distinction.  And while the student body is still quite possibly the most conservative campus in the nation, the faculty remains a bastion of progress and tolerance.

Despite the school’s conservative tilt, I have many fond memories of my time in Bryan-College Station due in large part to the excellent faculty and their influence in and around the community.  I salute the faculty senate in this bold move and hope the faculty’s overwhelming support is enough of an indication to state lawmakers that the resolution is in the best interest of all Texans.

I Fucking Hate Sarah Palin… But I’d Hire Her To Do My PR in a Heartbeat

I must preface this post by saying that I do not identify with either the Republican or Democratic parties.  I consider myself fairly politically agnostic.  The following post is not a reflection of my feelings towards conservatives as a whole, but rather to one in particular: Sarah Palin.  Palin’s staunch opposition to GLBT rights coupled with her meteoric rise in popularity among the far right wing should be worrisome to the gay community.

“I fucking hate Sarah Palin.”  That’s how Margaret Cho opened her most recent stand up show to the delight of her mostly gay audience.  Lisa Lampanelli memorably made Palin a centerpiece in her most recent comedy tour.  And while I love to see Tina Fey’s dead ringer impression of her as much as the next gay, it amazes me that despite monumentally embarrassing herself and the Republican party during the 2008 presidential election, she’s still at the center of our national attention a year and a half later.

Earlier this month President Obama engaged Palin in a verbal sparring match when she criticized his administration’s proposal to limit the use of nuclear weapons.  When asked for his reaction to Palin’s comments, rather than dismissing the question, Obama replied “Last I checked, Sarah Palin’s not much of an expert on nuclear issues.  If the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are comfortable with it, I’m probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin.”  Touché Mr. Obama, but I have to ask, why are you giving her the attention she so desperately seeks yet so clearly doesn’t deserve?  Responding to her senseless comments only legitimizes her as a political authority.

It seems Palin is everywhere these days- going rogue on Fox News, rebel-rousing at Tea Party rallies, peddling her autobiography at book-signings, and soon to be snowmobiling around Alaska in a reality show on the Discovery Channel.  Whatever clipping service is tracking her mentions in the press must be making a killing!  And while the vast majority of her press mentions over the past year and half have been less than flattering, she could care less.  You see Palin is a student of the Paris Hilton School of Public Relations in that she believes any publicity is good publicity.  While this PR strategy might be apropos for a celebutante, it’s amazing that Palin is making it work for a politician (I use that term loosely).

After becoming a national laughingstock during the 2008 presidential election, Palin could have easily faded away like a bad memory.  However, she’s managed to keep herself in the forefront of our minds by whatever means necessary- whether it be overreacting to a fairly innocuous comment by David Letterman or feuding publicly with her grandson’s father (and major cock-tease) Levi Johnston.

And while she remains a favorite punching bag of liberals, Palin has emerged as a major political mouthpiece to millions nationwide.  She’s managed to tap in to a distinct segment of our population that find her folksy, down-home, everywoman rhetoric comforting during a time of economic and political unrest.  Palin has mastered a fundamental rule of marketing:  know your target market and use messaging that resonates with them.

Is she planning a 2012 presidential run?  You betcha!  But surely, you say, Americans wouldn’t actually elect her to the presidency, right?  Surely, we’re smarter than that. Are we?  We elected George Bush… twice.  The sad truth is something about her appeals to a large portion of the American populace- a portion that typically emerges in droves on election day.

Like a bad case of herpes Sarah Palin just won’t go away.  As long as we keep lampooning her on sketch comedy shows, skewering her on late night television, and blogging about her on gay-oriented marketing websites, Sarah Palin will stick around.  We can laugh at her all we want now, because in the end, she may be the one laughing… all the way to the white house.